


The Real World

by aesthete



Category: Owl City (Band), Phan, Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF), dan and phil
Genre: M/M, Owl City, Phan AU, Songfic, the real world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-26 02:02:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4985764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aesthete/pseuds/aesthete
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil has an overactive imagination. Everyone, including his family, thinks he’s insane, and needs serious help. But while on a trip, he meet someone who believes otherwise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Real World

**Author's Note:**

> This is a songfic to the song The Real World by Owl City. I’ve attached the song, but you do not need to listen to the song to enjoy the fic. Although, if you are a hoot owl… *psst* *there’s a crap-load of references so be on the look-out*

**song:**

  
[The Real World by Owl City](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQmXgjod8B0)   


 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

As long as I can remember, I’ve been told I have an over-active imagination.

But everyone always says it like it’s a bad thing. “Grow up a little, Phil,” they’d say. “This is the real world.” Little did they know how wrong they were.

Reality does seem like a nice place, but, honestly, who would want to live there?

~~~~~~~~

“Phil, honey! Hurry up, we’ll miss our flight!”

“Sorry mum!” I called, dashing downstairs. “I was just feeding…. Never mind.”

I stopped when I noticed my dad in the doorway. I would never tell him how I had seen a starving winged kitten in the corner of my room and had stopped to give it half of my granola bar.

I pushed past him, out the front door, and climbed into the backseat of the car.

My dad hated my hallucinations. He thought it was “gay”, “stupid”, or “childish.” I had told him on multiple occasions that my imagination is what kept me alive. If I let it go, I would lose part of myself. But he wanted none of it, and swept his cloak, disappearing into the dark underground. The scars were beginning to itch from where he’d hurt me when I was younger.

I was ripped from my thoughts as the rest of my family climbed into the car and my dad started the engine. 

~~~~~~~~

Airplanes have always been one of my favourite places to be. My head was always up in the clouds, and it only felt right for the rest of my body to be, as well.

We were flying to Jamaica for winter break, and the flight would take hours. I wasn’t tired at all, but, as I stared out my window, the sky seemed to pull me out. I gazed out, as the amethyst sheets of the night settled over the vanilla twilight, and before I knew it, reality dissolved, and an airplane carried me to bed.

~~~~~~~~~

Even before I had stepped foot in the hotel lobby, I knew I would love it. On the cab drive over, I saw how it was located in dense wildlife, with sequoia trees and exotic flowers everywhere, and a creek running along one side, cutting into to mossy forest floor. The main building was large and wooden, the entrance flanked by small fire pits, and the two largest sequoias I could see in the vicinity. Stone paths wandered into the jungle, leading off to, what I knew, were small, 10- room inns.

This place looked incredible.

The nebula-patterned panther I saw in the trees just added to my curiosity.

As we walked up the porch steps and into the main building, I couldn’t help but be amazed. The columns and rails of the wrap-around porch were carved to look like snakes, and the large, heavy, oak doors we pushed through had bronze frogs on the handles. And when we stepped inside…. _Whoa._

The lobby was huge, with windows everywhere, a polished, dark wood floor, and a circular grey shag rug in the centre of the room. An ivory chandelier hung from the high, pointed ceiling. Potted plants and couches with faux animal skins draped over them were arranged throughout the room. Glass double doors on the left wall led out to the porch, and the maple reception desk took of up most of the back wall. There were a few people milling about; an old couple who were sat on a alligator-skin sofa, a young woman with a small child standing at the reception desk, and a small family, similar to ours, standing near a painted portrait of a python.

My parents and my brother advanced to the reception desk, but I wanted to explore. Nature was calling me.

I quickly told my mum that I was headed to have a look around the estate, and skipped out the glass door and down off the porch.

~~~~~~~

After perambulating through emerald tunnels and circuitboard stairways, I eventually came upon a small, marble, arched bridge, stretching across a quicksilver stream.

Leaning against the rail, I gazed down as the water trickled over the pebbles at the bottom, and small fish darted underneath the arch.

I suddenly heard a voice.

“Hey.”

My head whipped up, as I was sure I hadn’t imagined it this time. And, damn, was I glad I hadn’t.  
There, standing a few meters away, where the bridge met the cobblestone path, was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. His eyes were chocolate, his skin lightly tanned, and he had a a similar haircut to mine. His eyes glittered with diamonds. Dead, fallen leaves peeled up from the stone ground, taking wing on the balmy breeze that flowed by, causing his dark brown hair to flutter.

And I was swept off my feet.

I realised I was staring, and pulled my raven fringe across my face.

“H-hi,” I stuttered, and stared back at the stream. Watching the iridescent flashes of light shooting through the water. I felt the boy come and stand next to me.

“Sorry…” he mumbled, ducking behind his fringe. “This is probably really weird… My parents were like ‘Dan! Go make some friends!’ And you just looked nice to talk to and I was lonely and…” It was a shame to hear his angelic voice trail off.

“No, no it’s okay!” I exclaimed, maybe a little too eagerly. “I’m Phil.”

We watched the water glisten below us for a few moments. The rainbow streaks darted underneath us. A butterfly landed on an amaranth plant on the bank of the stream, it’s glistening wings the size of a swan’s.

“Do you see it too?” I whispered.

No response.

That’s when I realised what I’d said.  _Shit._ He thought I was insane.   
I glanced timidly over at Dan, and sure enough, he was looking at me, a puzzled expression on his face.

“I’m afraid not,” he said. “What, exactly, are you talking about?”

I ducked my head behind my fringe and turned away. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” I murmured. “I just… I have a bit of an 'over-active imagination’ and I sometimes get confused with whether what I’m seeing is real or not… I don’t have psychosis, but it’s just something I do… Sorry…” I glanced at him, and he still seemed bewildered.

 _Nice going, Phil. This is why you haven’t had a friend in nine years. Cause you’re freaking insane._  I turned to leave, tears stinging my eyes.

“No, wait!” Before I could make any further movements, I felt a tug on my sleeve. I turned around shyly, and met his fiery, cinnamon eyes. “Phil… Will you show me what you see?”

I swear I saw him blush. The wind scooped us up on the sugar maple, swan wings of the butterfly. _He wanted to know what I saw_  
I smiled at him, and his eyes glittered.

I began to describe what I saw.

~~~~~~~~~

“It was  _so. Amazing._ Matt Bellamy is such a great live singer. Like, a lot of times bands sound five times better in the studio than live, but I guess that doesn’t apply here.”

“That’s really cool! I’ve never been to a Muse concert…” my voice trailed off as I looked down at the stone path we were walking on. We had been talking for hours before Dan said he wanted to show me something. As it turned out, we had a lot in common.

“Are you serious?” Dan faked surprise, and I covered my face with my fringe. I could feel myself blush as I shook my head.

“Well, I’m going to one next October the seventeenth,” he stopped in front of me, crossing his arms and pulling a smirk. “I guess I’ll just have to bring you along.”

“That sounds an awfully lot like a date Mr Howell.” I threw the smirk back at him.

His face flushed bright red and he looked down. God, he was adorable. “It might be…”

I rolled my eyes and playfully pushed him out of the way. But secretly, my veins were filled with glitter.

~~~~~~~~~~

“So, where are we going, anyways?”

“You'lllllllll seeeeeee!” Dan sang, his pace quickening into a skip as we reached a fairly tall, bamboo building. Probably his villa.

Jogging to catch up, I sprinted inside behind him. I didn’t get to see much of the interior of the hotel, because Dan was dashing up the stairs.

I followed him.

~~~~~~~~~~

When I reached the end of the staircase, I was beginning to wish I took secondary school soccer practices more seriously. But nevertheless, we reached the top.   
Dan was standing in front of a light oak door, blushing at his feet. “I… I found this place a few hours after I got here…” he stammered, shyly. “I haven’t shown it to anyone else…”

I couldn’t help but grin as he opened the door and stepped out into the orange glow of the setting sun. I followed, and found myself on a rooftop terrace, engulfed in a bright, blinding light.

Flowers bloomed in various pots arranged around a pale green, wooden railing. A flight of Caribbean doves where nestled in a tall sequoia tree to the left of the building, their wings luminescent moonbeams against the purple dusk. To the right was the most gigantic ponderosa tree I’d ever seen. I was sure that pine trees weren’t native to Jamaica, but the branches of this one arched over us like a canopy, sheltering the right side of the terrace.

I strode to the center of the balcony and slowly turned in a circle.   
“Dan…” I breathed. “This is amazing.”

I felt the warmth of his hand gently slipping into mine, and he guided me to the edge of the balcony.

Below us, cobblestone roads snaked through the dense forest, and down the hill, near the shore, was the city of Kingston. Everything around me seemed ablaze with wonder.

“Thank you for inviting me up here,” I said softly.

“Hey, no problem.” Dan smiled at me, his eyes glittering in the sunset. “I wanted to share it with someone, and I figured you would appreciate it the most.”

I suddenly became very aware of my hand in his.

We leaned against the wooden rail and my gaze travelled across the landscape. I noticed how sun’s rays touched everything in sight, igniting them with flames.

“What do you see?” Dan whispered, from beside me.

“Kingston is on fire.”

“Should we save it?”

“You don’t need to save the city of flames from an already burning world.”

“Does that mean it’s not worth saving?”

“It means that there are more important things to save.” I glanced over at him. “And if something is burning, that doesn’t mean it’s not beautiful.”

“I guess I’m not on fire, then.”

I studied his face. And then I decided something. Dan was not on fire. Dan  _was_ the fire.

After a few moments of comfortable silence, I piped up.

“You’re the only person who doesn’t think my delusions are weird.”

Dan looked over at me, and I lost myself is his chocolate gaze.

“Phil…”

“I just wanted to thank you, I guess,” I murmured, shifting my weight.

“But, Phil…” Dan turned so he was facing me, and took both of my hands in his. “Listen… Your hallucinations  _are_ weird. But… That’s a good thing. They’re unique. What you see is beautiful. Anyone who doesn’t think that… Well… Normalness leads to sadness. And no one wants that.”

I smiled at him, and suddenly the doves sitting in the neighbouring tree swooped up into the air. Dan watched them, laughing as white, downy feathers fluttered down onto his face.

I couldn’t resist.   
Giggling, I leaned up and kissed his soft cheek.   
“Thank you.”

_Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn’t want to live there.  
_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days had passed, and Dan and I had developed a strong bond. We were always together, whether it was at the beach or spending a rainy day indoors, we were practically inseparable. It was shocking that we were this close and he hadn’t even met the rest of my family yet. I mean, we’d gone tubing and he had been on the same boat as us. But other than that…

We now lay sprawled on a blanket on the rooftop balcony, underneath the spectacular night sky. The Milky Way stretched on above us, and I spotted the Centaur constellation twinkling against the velvet sky. A sliver of the crescent moon crooned lunar lullabies.

Through heavy eyelids, I gazed over at the boy beside me. I studied his angelic profile. The moon reflected off him, and his skin seemed to glow.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?” I whispered, assuming he was asleep.

But I was wrong. He turned to face me, and I could tell Dan was wide awake; he smiled with his eyes.

“You’re skin is glowing,” I mumbled, sleepily. “Like the moon.”

“I’m a moon child now, aren’t I?” Dan mused, reaching up and gently brushing my fringe out of my face.

I nodded, closing my eyes, and just barely heard him whisper something inaudible, before a strawberry avalanche crashed over me, and sleep reeled me in.

 _I smiled at him, and suddenly the doves sitting in the neighbouring tree swooped up into the air. Dan watched them, laughing as white, downy feathers fluttered down onto his face._  
I couldn’t resist.   
Giggling, I leaned up and kissed his soft cheek.   
“Thank you.”

_Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn’t want to live there_

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dan wasn’t picking up his phone.

I managed to find my way through the black, inky air, to the rooftop terrace.

But he wasn’t there.

A normal person might assume that he was probably touring the island with his family. Scuba diving. Hiking Amity Mountain. Anything.

But I wasn’t a normal person.

I was just beginning to believe that he had gotten eaten by a python when I looked up from the path I was walking along.

And my vision cleared.

There, a few meters in front of me, was the small, marble, bridge Dan and I met on. And leaning against the rail of it, tossing stones into the creek, was Dan Howell himself.

He must’ve heard me coming, because he glanced up at me, giving me a weak smile, before gazing down again.

Something was wrong.

Moving closer, I noticed his cheeks, glistening in the sunlight.   
He’d been crying.

“Hey,” I said softly, when I reached him.

Dan only shrugged.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, lightly touching his wrist.

Silence.

After a few moments, I spoke up. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

No response.

Then-

“Phil, am I being too clingy?”

I stared at him, perplexed. “What?”

Dan shook his head. “It’s just…” He fidgeted with the sleeves of his shirt. “I don’t normally hang out around people… I feel like I’m acting weird… Maybe being too clingy, flirty, awkward, too nice… Sorry…”

“Dan, no.” And before I knew what I was doing, I was pulling him into a hug. “You don’t have to be sorry for anything,” I murmured into his hair. He smelled of vanilla and lavender. “You’re a really good person, and don’t think poorly of it. I don’t normally hang around people either. It’s okay.”

I felt him clinging to my sweater, and held him tighter. When we eventually broke apart, I whispered, “We’ll be weird together, okay?”

Dan nodded.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I was going home in two days.   
Dan and I had planned to meet every evening until then.

Waiting on the rooftop for his arrival, I leaned against the green banister of the balcony, underneath the ponderosa canopy. I gazed below, as small tiki torches lit the cobblestone paths. They were mini wildfires, brightly burning in the sunset.

“So pretty, aren’t they?” Dan had materialised right next to me. I must’ve been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn’t seen him coming up behind me.

I nodded, and took in the scene around me. The ruby redwood tree on the other end of the terrace glistened celestially, and the velvet ivy crawled around railing, as the sun painted everything in the vicinity and a beautiful shade of mahogany. I glanced over at the boy next to me, and I realised something. Something about this place.

At home, my visions were bashed. I obviously needed medication. Maybe an exorcist. Something was wrong. I didn’t fit in.

Here… Here it was different.

I could believe whatever I wanted. See whatever I wanted. And that was okay. The trees didn’t mind. The iridescent-feathered doves didn’t mind. And, most importantly, Dan didn’t mind. 

“I’d never leave if it were up to me,” I whispered, softly.

“Me neither,” Dan murmured. “Me neither.”

~~~~~~~~~

Never before had I had a problem coming back to my hotel room at 3 in the morning, after a paradisiacal evening with Dan. So, needless to say, when I gingerly pushed open to door, I was quite surprised to find my father standing in the doorway, arms folded, scowling down at me.

No, surprised is the wrong word. Frighted. Astounded. Anxious. Unsettled. Terrified.

But, through all those emotions, the best I could mange to say was “H-hey, Dad.”

Which was apparently the wrong thing to say.

“Philip, come outside with me. We’re having a talk.”

And with that, grabbed my arm, (pretty tightly, I may add) and practically dragged me outside. When were a few meters away from the villa, he almost threw me onto a green, metal bench.

“Where were you, young man?!” he bellowed, as I cowered in his shadow.

“I-I was just with Dan! I must’ve lost track of time! I’m sorry!” I squeaked, speaking the truth out of pure terror.

I wished he would just scream at me for being late and then go back to sleep. Because what followed was a lot worse than I could’ve anticipated.

Cocking his head to one side, a look of absolute confusion passed over his face, but it was quickly replaced with anger. “Who the hell is Dan?!”

Now it was my turn to be astounded. How did my father not know who Dan was? Hadn’t I mentioned him? Hadn’t they met?

“D-Dan…” I stuttered, slowly. “You know… The kid I’ve been hanging out with throughout our entire trip… He was on the same boat as us when we went tubing… I mean… I’ve probably talked about him a lot…”

When the perplexed look plastered on my father’s face didn’t change, I simply sighed, and stated, “Look Dad, he’s just my friend. Can I go to sleep now?”

That’s when the smoke cloud above our heads broke, pelting ash bullets across my skin.

My father’s confused expression morphed, and, just like that, he became a cobra, sneering, baring his fangs.

“Your…  _friend_?” he hissed.

Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit.

“You haven’t had a real friend in nine years! Since Vicky moved!” he bellowed, his roar getting increasingly louder. “You expect me to believe this?!”

I winced.

“No one would ever want to be your friend, Philip! You’re weird! You’re psychotic! Why can’t you get it through your sick mind that this Dan character is just a hallucination?!”

And just as the icy sword of words stabbed me in the heart, my mum burst the door of the villa. Her arms were failing. I saw her in slow motion, screaming at my father.

But I heard nothing.

I felt myself being ushered inside, felt myself climbing into my bed, but the whole time, I could only hear those words thundering around my brain.

_“Why can’t you get it through your sick mind that this Dan character is just a hallucination?!”_

~~~~~~~~~~

I barely ate anything the next morning. The whole day, I stayed in the same spot on my bed, gazing out the bay window, not really thinking about anything.

Because last night, it had all come down like a tidal wave. 

My imagination had betrayed me.   
I never knew Dan Howell. I had fallen in love with nothing. He was an illusion. A figment of imagination.

We were a phantasm.

~~~~~~~~

That evening, I found myself wandering the grounds of the estate. It was my last night here, and I wanted to preserve it.

I found myself on the green, rooftop terrace. Even though thinking of Dan caused me to spiral into a black vortex, being up here, with memory of him, was surprisingly comforting.

Leaning against the emerald rail, I watched a starry brush paint the dusk a vibrant Venetian blue. It was hard to believe what I was seeing.   
 _Wow, how ironic, Phil, seeing as you’ve been doing that for the past week_

I heard footsteps behind me, but I didn’t look up. _It’s just a mirage._

A pair of long, tan arms wrapped around my waist from behind, and I was pulled into a warm, tight embrace. I knew it was only a hallucination, but it didn’t stop my heart from doing the flippy-over thing.

“I didn’t see you at all today,” Dan murmured into my neck, his soft hair tickling my chin.  
I lost my breath.

_It’s not real._

I stood a little straighter, and focused on a potted plant to my right, the whisperings filling my mind, trying to eliminate Dan from my imagination.

But when he lifted his head and slipped away from me, he didn’t vanish. He simply went and stood a few feet away from me, gazing at the ground. “Sorry…”

“Don’t be,” I muttered, bitterly. “You’re not even real, so why does it matter anyway.”

The terrace went silent.

The doves stopped chirping. The wind stopped whistling. Dan stopped breathing. “Wh….what did you just say?”

I turned to look at him, tears glistening in his chocolate eyes, taking a few steps back from me. _Not like I cared._

“You’re not real,” I repeated. “Just another illusion. When I couldn’t tell the difference between my thoughts and reality.”

“Phil…”

“I never have any friends anyway! It was absolutely insane for me to fall in love with an illusion!”

“Phil, please…”

“So, I’m going to ask you once, and I’m going to ask you kindly. Please Dan, just get out of my head!”

“Phil!”

I stopped, and looked up at Dan. He had taken a few steps forward, and his face was just centimeters away. He was frozen in my icy eyes, and I was burning his fiery ones.. I could really see him. A 3-dimensional person…

Dan sighed, and licked his lips. “Just…”

He never got the chance to finish.

Because he was fire. I was ice. And suddenly… We collided.

And as his warm lips pressed into mine, I realised that this wasn’t just some silly illusion.

This was the real world.

~~~~~~

**_Ten years later_ **

I stood on a rooftop terrace.

Flowers bloomed in various pots arranged around a pale green, wooden railing. A flight of Caribbean doves where nestled in a tall sequoia tree to the left of the building, their wings luminescent moonbeams against the purple dusk. To the the right was the most gigantic ponderosa tree I’d ever seen. I was sure that pine trees weren’t native to Jamaica, but the branches of this one arched over us like a canopy, sheltering the right side of the terrace.

Twisting the gold ring around my finger, I gazed around at the scene.   
 _Nothing had changed…_

A pair of long, tan arms wrapped around my waist from behind, just like before. I leaned into my new husband’s chest, breathing in his vanilla and lavender scent.

“Can you feel a silk embrace in the satin air?” I murmured, closing my eyes.

I felt Dan nod, and he pulled me closer into him.

After a while, he spoke up. “This was a great place to go for our honeymoon…” He said, softly. “I wonder… I wonder if we just… Dissolved… Leaving no trace… Dissolve into the scenery… Would the real world even care?”

I shook my head. “Escape reality with me,” I whispered. And together, we dissolved into the soft lullaby of the evening.

 _I smiled at him, and suddenly the doves sitting in the neighbouring tree swooped up into the air. Dan watched them, laughing as white, downy feathers fluttered down onto his face._  
I couldn’t resist.   
Giggling, I leaned up and kissed his soft cheek.   
“Thank you.”

_Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn’t want to live there_

_“Hey”_

_My head whipped up, as I was sure I hadn’t imagined it this time. And, damn, was I glad I hadn’t.  
There, standing a few meters away, where the bridge met the cobblestone path, was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. His eyes were chocolate, his skin lightly tanned, and he had a a similar haircut to mine. His eyes glittered with diamonds. Dead, fallen leaves peeled up from the stone ground, taking wing on the balmy breeze that flowed by, causing his dark brown hair to flutter._

_And I was swept off my feet._

**Author's Note:**

> //Special thanks to Izzy, Vicky, and Ambrielle for editing/giving me motivation to write this//  
> //Again, sorry for my shit writing//


End file.
